Donald Moeller's Cost To Taxpayers

Donald Moeller's case and imprisonment over the last 22 years has cost taxpayers plenty. When we added it all up, it came close to a million and a half dollars.

From the day Moeller was convicted until his execution, it isn't possible to get an exact figure on what it has cost taxpayers to house and try Donald Moeller. But we can come up with a close estimate.

The cost to house a prisoner in the state has nearly doubled since 1993.

When Moeller was first sent to prison, he cost the state $33 dollars a day. Today that rate has climbed to nearly $62 a day.

The total tab to you, the taxpayer, to keep Moeller in prison these last 22 years was $354,482.35.

The cost for a death row inmate like Moeller is basically the same as a regular inmate.

On top of the prison charges, there were costs incurred to keep Moeller in both the Minnehaha County Jail and the Pennington County jail during legal proceedings.

Death row cases are more expensive in general because of the appeals process. According to the prosecuting attorney, the costs for Moeller's trials and appeals ran at least a million dollars.

That means the child killer's 22 years in the prison, two trials and many appeals cost you the taxpayer nearly $1.5 million.

KELOLAND News also contacted the Department of Corrections to ask them how much an execution costs the state. Officials will not have that figure until later in November.